Monthly Archives: February 2014

On Wednesday June 4th, 2014, the Canadian Chapter will host a reception in the St.Michael’s Cathedral Courtyard. Currently a restoration project to enhance the architectural beauty of St Michael’s Cathedral is underway. Included in the program will be a tour of the interior restoration guided by the Rector, Fr. Busch.

On Friday, August 8th, the Canadian Chapter will join with the Michigan Chapter for an entertaining evening of cocktails and dinner followed by a presentation by the Cmdt. Daniel Anrig, Commandant of the Pontifical Swiss Guard. The event will take place at the Toronto Hunt Club located on the shores of Lake Ontario. Invitations will follow closer to the events. If you wish to include some of your friends who are not Patrons, please email their names and addresses to cpavmtt@gmail.com.

On February 8, 2014, the Canadian Chapter Chair, Dr. Teresa Tomory, and Marnee Stern, a Chapter Board member, met with the Honourable Noel Kinsella, Speaker of the Senate of Canada. This auspicious meeting took place in the Senate Speaker’s Chambers, in a beautiful historic room filled with heraldry and Latin inscriptions. The purpose of the meeting was to share information about the recently formed Canada-Holy See Parliamentary Group and the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums and to explore collaboration in a suitable restoration project to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Canada’s Confederation coming up in 2017. In addition to Speaker Kinsella, representatives for the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Honourable Andrew Scheer, the Chair of the Canada-Holy See Parliamentary Friendship Group, Mr. Pierre Lemieux, and the Vice–Chair of the Group, Senator Suzanne Fortin-Duplessis attended the meeting. The Canadian Chapter looks forward to a fruitful partnership with this group. To have a little more understanding of Canadian history we include some details of the Senate Speaker’s Chambers for your reading pleasure.

The Speaker’s chambers have long served as a stately setting for conducting parliamentary business. They echo the deliberations of men and women who served as guiding forces throughout a century and a half of Canada’s history. At the same time, they are warm and inviting. This warmth comes in part from the various woods found throughout the chambers and the deep carvings1. Among the many points of interest in these quarters are the heraldic emblems that adorn the walls and provide accent for the historical furnishings. There is a fascinating tale to be told about these armorial bearings, the art form from which they have evolved, and the unique language created to describe them.

The California Patrons of the Arts began 2014 with an event at the Getty Museum in Brentwood. Members enjoyed a tour from Jeffrey Weaver, Curator of the exhibition: “Canterbury and St. Albans: Treasures from Church and Cloister.” The exhibition focuses on the remarkable interplay between two masterpieces of English medieval art: stained glass from Canterbury Cathedral and pages from the illuminated book of psalms known as the St. Albans Psalter. The tour concluded with a reception on the terrace hosted by Jenifer Feeley and sunset views over the Pacific.

The California Chapter will be hosting their next event on March 20, 2014 at the Judson Stained Glass Studios Near South Pasadena. The studio has been fashioning works of stained glass for over 100 years. Patrons will not only tour the museum, but have artists explain and demonstrate the process of creating stained glass. For more information or to RSVP, please contact Chairman, Michael Feeley.

The latest edition of the California Chapter newsletter “Messagero” is out! To read more on the features above, click here to take a closer look.

To start off the new year, New York Times Travel issued a list titled “52 Places to go in 2014.” The Vatican came in at #24, with a blurb sporting 2/4 features of the article’s byline– “witness a city in transformation,” and, “explore the past.”

After paying respect to Pope Francis and the upcoming April canonizations as obvious reasons to visit, journalist Katie Parla writes, “In 2014, the faithful can also enjoy the fruits of restorations that have taken years…” Among the many projects sponsored by Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums, she cites the re-opening of the Via Triumphalis (Santa Rosa) Necropolis!

We are so grateful to our Canadian Patrons who have diligently sponsored the project leading to the reopening of this exciting excavation, and we are so excited for the visitors who will get to view its full splendor and history thanks to the newly installed state-of-the-art displays and informational screens. We also remind you that this extensive site is still undergoing necessary digs and studies; in fact, the sponsorship of archaeologist Monica Ricciardi to continue work at the Santa Rosa Necropolis is one of our current Restoration Needs of Wishbook 2014– http://www.vatican-patrons.org/digs-research-in-the-necropolis-of-the-via-triumphalis-546.